Littleton to be precise. We only got advance notice on Monday of a Wednesday evening event. Nevertheless I summarized the poster and put it out to the Grafton Country Republican email list, the Tea Party list and the North Grafton Republican list. Word must have got around. By 6:30 the Littleton Opera House was pretty full. Ron Paul started speaking on time. He sounded good, spoke with substance, not fluff, unlike the average politician, and took questions from the floor. The crowd was supportive, no hecklers, and applauded repeatedly. Youngest son, who used to refer to Paul as "Crazypants", came away impressed.
We had reporters from the Union Leader and the Littleton Courier. I got interviewed by both of them. Dunno why me, except maybe my bright red ski parka and white hair. The Union Leader put the story on page A3. Byline of Sara Young-Knox, she quoted me and then misspelled my name. She also lowballed the crowd estimate at 80 people. I counted better than 200.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Glass Steagal lives
After the great stock market crash of 1929, Congress passed the Glass-Steagal Act which forbid banks from playing the stock market. FDIC deposit insurance had just been invented, and nobody wanted to see banks playing the market with tax payer guaranteed money.
Banks hated Glass Steagal, and they spend 50 years lobbying the Feds to repeal it. They finally succeeded under Clinton and starting in the 90's banks jumped back into the stock market. They made barrels of money out of the market, and lots of capital that should have been invested in economic expansion was frittered away playing the market.
Now after Great Depression 2.0, the Feds are pushing "The Volcker Rule." which is Glass-Steagal brought back to life. Banks may not play the stock market.
This time the proposed "rule" is 294 pages long, and they estimate it will take 6 million man hours on the part of banks to fill out the paper work. Each year.
Can you say "Welfare for lawyers"?
They could just re instate the Glass-Steagal act which worked fine for 50 years. But that would be to easy, and be a confession that repealing Glass-Steagal was a mistake.
By the way, our old buddies Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were cheerleaders in the repeal of Glass-Steagal 20 years ago.
Banks hated Glass Steagal, and they spend 50 years lobbying the Feds to repeal it. They finally succeeded under Clinton and starting in the 90's banks jumped back into the stock market. They made barrels of money out of the market, and lots of capital that should have been invested in economic expansion was frittered away playing the market.
Now after Great Depression 2.0, the Feds are pushing "The Volcker Rule." which is Glass-Steagal brought back to life. Banks may not play the stock market.
This time the proposed "rule" is 294 pages long, and they estimate it will take 6 million man hours on the part of banks to fill out the paper work. Each year.
Can you say "Welfare for lawyers"?
They could just re instate the Glass-Steagal act which worked fine for 50 years. But that would be to easy, and be a confession that repealing Glass-Steagal was a mistake.
By the way, our old buddies Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were cheerleaders in the repeal of Glass-Steagal 20 years ago.
Thr Great Debate
It wasn't on cable TV. My broadband isn't broad enough to watch it over the internet. Long irritating pauses while the compute makes excuses. Then I listened to it on internet radio for a while but that croaked too after 10 minutes. Apparently not much blood was shed, at least not enough to make it to the car radio as I drove into Littleton for a doctors appointment this morning. Nothing in this morning's Wall St Journal, probably because they must start printing before 8 PM in order to get it up here in time for the morning mail.
For tonight's political entertainment I am going to see Ron Paul, live at an Town Hall meeting in Littleton.
For tonight's political entertainment I am going to see Ron Paul, live at an Town Hall meeting in Littleton.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Terra Nova disappoints
Monday's show was dreadful. The outpost in the past is overwhelmed by a virus that gives everyone deep and serious amnesia. They don't remember being married, being in Terra Nova, nothing. It makes a bunch of characters do and say really dumb things.
Apparently all the Hollywood scriptwriters have died or gone on strike or moved to New Zealand to work for Peter Jackson. In Terra Nova we had a plot generating device nearly as good as the Starship Enterprise. We can hunt dinosaurs, open mines, start farms, fight the rebel Sixers, distill moonshine, race dirt bikes across the plains and have every sort of love affair. And yet, with all these possibilities for interesting plots, the scriptwriters decided to make everyone in the Terra Nova settlement do stupid things. Arrgh.
Plus, they need new camera's. The color is broken on the camera's they use. Everything comes out in black and white. Makes me think my TV set is failing. Which is irritating. And the actors mumble too much and I fail to catch the dialog.
Not sure if I will bother to watch it again.
Apparently all the Hollywood scriptwriters have died or gone on strike or moved to New Zealand to work for Peter Jackson. In Terra Nova we had a plot generating device nearly as good as the Starship Enterprise. We can hunt dinosaurs, open mines, start farms, fight the rebel Sixers, distill moonshine, race dirt bikes across the plains and have every sort of love affair. And yet, with all these possibilities for interesting plots, the scriptwriters decided to make everyone in the Terra Nova settlement do stupid things. Arrgh.
Plus, they need new camera's. The color is broken on the camera's they use. Everything comes out in black and white. Makes me think my TV set is failing. Which is irritating. And the actors mumble too much and I fail to catch the dialog.
Not sure if I will bother to watch it again.
Republican County Dinner last night
It was the annual County fund raiser. All the active Republicans in Grafton county were there, something close to one hundred. At this point I have been kicking around long enough that I know most of them. So we all did the chit and chat thing, shook hands, greeted newcomers, and generally socialized.
Then we got down to the business of the evening, fund raising and politicking. We managed to attract two real Republican presidential candidates, Huntsman and Fred Karger. Fred is a new name to me. Both men gave their stump speeches and received rounds of applause. Huntsman come across as a perfectly reasonable man, he spoke well and didn't express any crazy ideas like some have. If elected he would make a capable president. Whether he can overcome his rivals and gain the nomination is a good question.
For fundraising we did the traditional auction of celebrity ties. This started years ago with the auction of one of John Sununu's ties. Last night we had ties from Rick Perry, Ovid Lamontaigne, Fred Karger, Herman Cain, and a couple of others. Rick Perry's son Griffin told of asking his father for a tie to bring to the dinner. Some confusion resulted, with the Perry household left wondering what those crazy New Hampsters would think of next.
Then we got down to the business of the evening, fund raising and politicking. We managed to attract two real Republican presidential candidates, Huntsman and Fred Karger. Fred is a new name to me. Both men gave their stump speeches and received rounds of applause. Huntsman come across as a perfectly reasonable man, he spoke well and didn't express any crazy ideas like some have. If elected he would make a capable president. Whether he can overcome his rivals and gain the nomination is a good question.
For fundraising we did the traditional auction of celebrity ties. This started years ago with the auction of one of John Sununu's ties. Last night we had ties from Rick Perry, Ovid Lamontaigne, Fred Karger, Herman Cain, and a couple of others. Rick Perry's son Griffin told of asking his father for a tie to bring to the dinner. Some confusion resulted, with the Perry household left wondering what those crazy New Hampsters would think of next.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Thanks Florida
Thanks for moving your primary up to January. That means we in NH have to move up to December of this year. The presidential election season is too damn long right now. Instead of governing the country, presidents (and Congresspersons) spend all their time running in the permanent election. And you have taken a big step toward making it longer.
The newsies love presidential elections cause they are easily understood and easily reported upon, all you have to do is talk about who is in front. That doesn't require much brainpower, or education. So the newsies talk up presidential elections all the time 'cause even the dimmest of them know that much.
The other trouble with starting the primary race so early is we pick candidates on issues that are often moot by November. Last time we picked Hillary Clinton as out Democratic presidential candidate. How did that work out for us?
The newsies love presidential elections cause they are easily understood and easily reported upon, all you have to do is talk about who is in front. That doesn't require much brainpower, or education. So the newsies talk up presidential elections all the time 'cause even the dimmest of them know that much.
The other trouble with starting the primary race so early is we pick candidates on issues that are often moot by November. Last time we picked Hillary Clinton as out Democratic presidential candidate. How did that work out for us?
Frugal Forever
Title of a Wall St Journal piece. The gist of the story is that financially pressed Americans are buying more store brands and less national brands. Catchy and all, but as a regular buyer of store brands, I gotta say, they ain't THAT cheap. True, you save a few percent over a national brand, but somehow I don't think that small difference is going to swing the country into or out of Great Depression 2.0. Must have been a slow day at the Journal.
More to the point, consumer spending used to be 70% of the US GNP. Of that huge amount of spending, much of it is deferrable. Consumers worried about losing their jobs or layoffs, will defer buying new cars, appliances, clothing, lawn care, housewares, even Christmas gifts. About the only things people have to are groceries. And that's all most of us are buying. I can see this when I visit Home Depot or Lowes. The aisles are empty of customers.
More to the point, consumer spending used to be 70% of the US GNP. Of that huge amount of spending, much of it is deferrable. Consumers worried about losing their jobs or layoffs, will defer buying new cars, appliances, clothing, lawn care, housewares, even Christmas gifts. About the only things people have to are groceries. And that's all most of us are buying. I can see this when I visit Home Depot or Lowes. The aisles are empty of customers.
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